Kamal Ghorui
KYIV, UKRAINE: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday that a Russian missile attack on a Kyiv apartment building the previous day killed 24 people, including, what local officials said, were three teenagers.Emergency workers finished digging through the building’s rubble after more than a day, Zelenskyy said on X.The cruise missile hit the nine-storey corner block during what the Ukrainian air force said was Russia’s biggest barrage of the country since its all-out invasion.The assault mostly targeted the Ukrainian capital, where 48 people were wounded, including two children, Zelenskyy said.Russia hammered Ukraine with large-scale aerial attacks in the days following a May 9-11 ceasefire that US President Donald Trump said he asked Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin to observe. Fighting went on over those 72 hours, although reportedly on a lesser scale.This week’s attacks ran counter to recent suggestions from Trump and Putin that the war, now in its fifth year, is close to ending.Zelenskyy said Thursday that Moscow had launched more than 1,560 drones against Ukrainian population centers since Wednesday. In all, some 180 sites across the country were damaged, including more than 50 residential buildings, he said.Previously, the biggest Russian drone attack was from the evening of March 23 to the evening of March 24, when Moscow’s forces fired nearly 1,000 drones and missiles at Ukraine.Ukraine has also built up significant long-range capabilities, and Russia’s Defense Ministry said Friday that air defenses downed 355 drones overnight in one of the largest Ukrainian drone attacks of the war.Several airports suspended flights overnight because of the attacks.Also, a Ukrainian drone attack on Ryazan, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) southeast of Moscow, killed four people, including a child, Ryazan Gov. Pavel Malkov said.After the attack, massive plumes of black smoke spewed from a fire at a local oil refinery. Ukraine has targeted Russian oil facilities in an effort to deny vital export revenue for Moscow and rattle the Kremlin.Ukrainian officials made no immediate comment about the Ryazan strike.The Ukrainian capital observed an official day of mourning Friday in remembrance of those killed Thursday, and Zelenskyy visited the site.The cruise missile that hit the apartment building was built in the second quarter of this year, Zelenskyy said, apparently after Ukrainian experts analyzed the wreckage.“This means Russia is still importing the components, resources and equipment necessary for missile production in circumvention of global sanctions,” Zelenskyy said in another post on X late Thursday.“Stopping Russia’s sanctions evasion schemes must be a genuine priority for all our partners,” he said.Russia and Ukraine have continued to occasionally swap prisoners of war, and 205 from each country returned home Friday.Zelenskyy said it was the first phase of a planned 1,000-for-1,000 prisoner swap. Some of the Ukrainians released had been held in Russian captivity since 2022, he said, and had fought in some of the war’s fiercest battles.Russia’s Defense Ministry confirmed the exchange and thanked the United Arab Emirates for helping broker it.
